The present invention relates to guiding a ribbon that is being payed off of a core; and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for guiding a relatively narrow, relatively fragile ribbon that is being payed off of a transverse wound core.
In the past, relatively narrow width, relatively fragile ribbons have been transverse wound on cores that have widths substantially greater than that of the ribbons. An example of such a ribbon is a non-woven web used in the manufacture of disposable diapers. When such ribbons are payed off of their cores, the ribbons have had a tendency to wander, back and forth, from side to side. Such wandering is disadvantageous and detrimental to efficient operation of the initial downstream ribbon handling processor or apparatus, such as, for example, a ribbon splicer, that preferably needs to have the ribbon continuously enter the splicer at the same lateral position.
Those working in this art have for sometime been seeking an inexpensive, reliable way to prevent or minimize the wandering of such ribbons as the ribbon is pulled from a transverse wound core.